This is what was once a closet. The closet never worked all that well for clothes storage (name me one kid who puts their clothes on hangers).  Luckily it was deep enough that we could make a workable art studio in the space. The deal was that my son would get the loft bed and my daughter would get her own desk.  Obviously they share this space, but my daughter is the prolific artist in the family.

My brother built the desk and shelves with leftovers from the cloud bed and whatever wood he scrounged up in our basement.  The top shelf is for coloring books and work books. The other two shelves are my older kids’ special shelves. All the pretty rocks, weird bits of plastic, pieces of string, cards from grandma, and whatever else ends up in their pockets goes here.

The art supply wall idea came from Pinterest (it’s originally from HGTV, but I can’t seem to find the link).  I called up a sheet metal shop in town and asked if they could cut a piece of metal to size for me. “No problem!” they said.  They were the nicest guys–made sure there were no sharp edges, drilled holes so I could hang it easily, chatted me up about the weather, and charged me 20 bucks. I glued 2 super strong magnets to the back of each tin (though some could use 3, I think) and filled them up with pencils, markers, glue, tape, and all that other good stuff. This art studio is one of the best parts of the room–it gets used every single day.

Here is an overview of the room. You can really see how small it is from this angle.  It looks so clean and uncluttered, but wait, what is all that stuff under those beds:

There is a bunch of hidden storage in this room and it works out really well. Under the crib (on the left in the photo) is a box of linens for all the beds, a cradle full of babies, and a puzzle box. The ottoman with hairpin legs (thank you, craiglist!) is also a toy box. Under my daughter’s bed is the giant box of dress up stuff (which was a curbside find) and a wooden box for their pajamas. Not bad, right?

It’s taken us 9 months (really?!) to finish this room. Whew! All of that  for a few before & after shots:

This room was a nursery, then two toddlers’ bedroom and now three happy sibling share it! So here is a little bonus before & after with a before-the-before photo  in there:

Thanks for coming along with me as we made this room. Here are all the posts about this little room in one place:

• nursery tour on ohdeedoh
• before post
• during
• still during
• still still during
• after post 1
• after post 2 (that’s this one silly)

We live in a small (1000 square feet) house that has two very small bedrooms and there are 5 of us. When we had our third baby I was sure my husband and I would have to share our bedroom with him for a very long time.  Then I came across this bedroom on Ohdeedoh one day. The room is small and not only does it fit three kids comfortably, there is room for a desk and a dresser and toys. I thought if they can do it, we could too. Only we had to do it for a 6 year old girl, a 4 year old boy, and the 2 year old boy.

The first thing we did, or rather the first thing I asked my brother to do, was build a loft bed. The room is 10×10, so there was no way we were going to fit two beds and a crib in there. I hate bunk beds–changing the sheets on bunk beds is the worst, but they can look pretty awful too.  We designed this cloud loft bed (for the 4 year old) so it would almost disappear into the background. The clouds act as a guard rail and I painted them the same white as the walls, but I couldn’t resist one stripey cloud (inspired by this coat rack).

Underneath the clouds is my daughter’s bed–the iron number by ikea that everyone loves. We strung christmas lights to the bottom of the loft bed so she has a light. Also because we had to put the cloud bed right in the window. The way the room is set up there was no other place for the loft to go.  I was worried about it, but it turned out just fine–the window and the shade still work and it barely even blocks any light.

The baby’s bed is across from the clouds. Above the crib is a map of our neighborhood that I painted. It still needs street names and the railroad track and the bike path painted in, but it’s a work in progress–mostly because  I can’t do while the baby is sleeping! I picked up the the masks at our local art supply shop and they work for dress up and decoration (a twofer). There are wooden boxes under the crib for storage (that I talked about here) and the hamper was a lucky thrift store find.

On the neighboring wall is the dresser/changing table and the storage/display shelves. We keep diapers in the wooden box up on the shelf and the red cross thing is actually a nightlight!  The dresser caused a bit of problems when I was redoing the room. I really thought it would look good gray, but it ended up looking like a big gray blob in this all white room. So I had to paint it white again (and again and again–it takes lots of coats to cover up dark gray).

But even though it’s boring white on the outside, the inside is super awesome! I fell in love with the idea of painting the inside of drawers when I saw it on pinterest. It took four cans of spray paint: safety orange, farm equipment yellow, lagoon blue, and fluorescent pink (all rustoleum brand). After spraying a few coats of color, I finished them all with a coat of clear shellac. The dresser is the only clothes storage we have for the kids, so they each get their own color drawer and they all share the undie/sock drawer on top.  What happened to the closet, you ask? Stay tune for tomorrow and I’ll show you!

three kids in a room: part two

Remember these crates I found in the garbage?  I cleaned them up and we slapped some wheels on the good ones this past weekend. Et volia! Toy boxes with wheels. Not my idea and not even the first time I’ve done it, but it is still awesome. Blocks are heavy and a pain to drag out, but no longer! All thanks to the almighty wheel.

I’m here. I haven’t fallen off the earth, I’ve just been sucked into summer with three little kids and all it’s sweaty, whiny, wet and happy craziness. I keep waiting for things to slow down a little so I can get some projects crossed off the list, but then yesterday I realized the crazy is not going to let up until summer’s done.

So I’m going to try to take that minute here and there my kids give me and to get something accomplished. Like their room. It’s still far from done and it’s starting to wear on me.  The overhead projector came out yesterday and I started to draw a map of our neighborhood on the big board.  Nothing like a big junior high flash back in the middle of the day.  If you are too young to remember the drone of the fan and the slightly burny smell of the overhead projector well then you are just too young aren’t you.

If you’ve got a keen eye then you spotted the bumper I made in the first picture. And here is the bunting bumper (rubber baby bunting bumpers!) in all it’s glory. Take a long look, because I will never be making one of these suckers again. You know when you are dreading doing a project and then you start and think, hey, this isn’t so bad, kind of fun even? Well this wasn’t like that at all–it sucked the whole way through.  But thankfully done and off the list.

Painting the dresser is next. Any thoughts?

Here are the first few posts about the room if you need a refresher:

• before
• during 1
• during 2

We’re still working little by little on the kids’ room. The paint is on and the crib is up! Three kids in a room! Ooff! Here is the before post if you forgot what it looked like (because it was so long ago) and a during. That big board up on the wall isn’t minimalist art, though with my moody, out of focus shot it does look like it.  I’m going to paint a map of our neighborhood on it and I would love your thoughts. I’ve got an overhead projector that I can use to trace a map, but I’m stuck on colors. We live by some lakes and parks, so there will be shades of green and blue. But what about the streets? I was thinking white, but is that too much white in the room? Or I could do the blocks white and leave the streets the color of the board. I still don’t know what to do about marking the places–kid drawings? Polaroids? stickers? Remember I was a philosophy major not an art major. I need your help!

Under the crib I’ve got it covered. A few casters and wheels on some old boxes and blazzam! Storage! There is finally a place to put puzzles and linens. The wheels look cool, but I’m holding my breath with two boys in the house. Isn’t that bear creek crate bomb? I was at the expensive thrift store (ha!) and it was only $1.50. Score!

I think I might make a bumper out of that black and white ikea bunting fabric. The baby isn’t so much a baby anymore, so the bumper won’t be to protect his little head. It will block his view of the other kids so he can actually fall asleep. Well, that is the theory anyway…